Arrr!!! Performing Piracy
and me and two other friends calling each other on the phone at work and
yelling ‘Arrr!’ and hanging up. That was Talk Like a Pirate Day” (Summers).
3. Promulgation
One of the interesting questions in dealing with a phenomenon that can only
be described as viral is how did this “holiday” go from an event celebrated by
three or four people to a worldwide phenomenon. While many in the world have
no doubt never heard of it, it has been, by all accounts, incredibly successful.
International Talk Like a Pirate Day has been celebrated in at least forty-nine of
the fifty states and in the White House. It has been celebrated on every
continent, including Antarctica, and on the space station (Summers). Every year
it seems to grow bigger. So what is responsible for the success? Like many
things it is quite complicated, with many contributing factors, but it does have a
clear starting point. OF Chumbucket recalled, “During that racquetball game
when we came up with the decision to have a holiday, we said you know who
would be a great spokesman for the day? Dave Barry” (Baur, Interview). Getting
noticed by Dave Barry, one of the best-known humor columnists in America,
would be the inciting event critical for the success of Talk Like a Pirate Day. In
2002, 01’ Chumbucket came across Dave Barry’s e-mail address and sent him
an e-mail detailing the purpose and origin of Talk Like a Pirate Day. Dave Barry
was interested enough in the idea to write one of his syndicated columns on the
subject. It appeared September 8, 2002 and caught the world’s attention. Of the
experience 01’ Chumbucket stated:
There’s our fifteen minutes of fame. It will probably be over
by about two-thirty in the afternoon. But it just got legs, took
up, and started running. Within two weeks of this column
appearing we’d been on the radio in Ireland and Australia and
several cities around the US. We’ve been on NPR and it just
kept going. And every year we think,